Giving thanks will be a little costlier this year, but — and here’s something you can be truly thankful for — it probably won’t empty your wallet.

The price for putting Thanksgiving dinner on the table for 10 people is expected to rise slightly this year, clocking in at $49.41. That’s 37 cents higher than in 2013. For that, you can blame dairy products, coffee and that all-important marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole, according to the annual informal survey of consumer grocery prices performed by the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Paula Deen is ready to tell her side of the story behind the racist remark that decimated her career, but you’ll need to pay to hear it.

The former Food Network star has been working on a documentary about herself and her downfall — triggered in 2013 by her acknowledgment that she’d used a racial slur in the past — but it will only be available to subscribers of her new website, the Paula Deen Network. Recipe content on the site will be free, but viewers will need to pay $9.99 a month to view videos.

Like it or not, it’s best to simply embrace that chocolate must play a key role in any Valentine’s Day dinner.

But a chocolate tart or truffles or bonbons or even chocolate-dipped strawberries are so... cliche. Maybe think a little outside the chocolate box this year. Maybe slip the chocolate in as a savory component to a steak dinner so rich and so delicious, you’ll be tempted to abandon silverware as you eat it.

We see shrimp and vegetarian and even crab. But never chicken. And that’s a shame, because the ingredients in a fresh spring roll — usually a blend of vegetables and noodles, often some avocado, maybe some mint, all wrapped in tender rice paper — aren’t all that far removed from the usual chicken salad ingredients.

And then there is the dipping sauce. There are plenty of variations, but spicy peanut sauce is among the most common. And chicken certainly gets along well with peanut sauce.

I give you this simple, low-carb, high-flavor “quiche” that calls for no grains, no gluten and no heavy lifting. It has, in fact, become my go-to dinner on busy weeknights simply because it is so effortless. It also happens to be pretty versatile.

The whole thing is cooked in a single skillet and requires only a few minutes hands-on time. The “crust” is made from caramelized cauliflower florets, but actually any number of other vegetables could be substituted. I’ve done it with broccoli florets, as well as cubed butternut squash.

With Thanksgiving falling on the first day of Hanukkah, I wanted to look for ways to blend a little each holiday at the same table.

And it turns out the fruit is a fine place to start. Because cooked fruit enjoys starring roles in both holidays. For Hanukkah, there often is applesauce, a sweet and refreshing counterpoint to savory, crispy potato latkes. And for Thanksgiving, a dinner spread is incomplete without a sweet and tart cranberry sauce — even if it’s from a can.

As sandwiches go, the Fluffernutter never really did much for me as a kid. I love peanut butter in so many ways, but it always seemed to taint the billowy, sticky sweet wonderfulness of the Fluff.

So I was more prone to eating Fluff the way it was intended to be consumed — by the spoonful. Directly from the container. Ideally while standing. If you prefer to sit, I’ll try not to think less of you.

By this point in the summer, I’ve had about all the burgers, dogs and birds I can handle. It’s time to try something a little different on the grill.

And one thing most of us don’t do nearly enough of — grilled fruit. Not only is grilled fruit crazy delicious — thanks to the intense heat caramelizing all the natural sugars — it also pairs perfectly with savory meats.

So to help us all get out of our late summer grilling ruts, I came up with this easy recipe for pork tenderloin cutlets topped with grilled cherry salsa.

Easy, delicious lunch packing relies on leftovers. This is why there are certain dinner foods I always make sure to cook too much of — chicken, steak, pasta, rice and grilled or roasted vegetables. They’re all easily transformed into something fresh. That’s why dinner is the best time to start thinking about the next day’s lunch. If supper leftovers could be easily repurposed, you might as well make a little extra.

The following recipes are from J.M. Hirsch’s “Beating the Lunch Box Blues,” Rachael Ray Books, 2013)